A hospital has clarified its guidance on speaking to trans people after it was criticised for a 'woke' poster.

The Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead had displayed a poster titled “7 ways to be a good Trans Friend,” that urged staff to “stop asking inappropriate questions”.

It continues: “Questions such as, ‘What is your name?’ and ‘are you really a man or a woman?’ are a no-no, as are questions about genitals.

“You would not [ask] such questions of cisgender people so why would you pose them to trans people?”

In a Sun article headlined 'Fury over woke NHS hospital poster that says asking someone’s name is transphobic', right-wing think tank Policy Exchange said the guidance “indicated the spread of gender ideology in the NHS”.

But the Royal Free Hospital says the guidance was incorrectly worded and that there is no policy that says staff should not ask a patient’s name.

The hospital says the poster should actually have told staff not to ask trans people what their “real” name is.

It claims that it cannot be verified who created the poster but that that the wording appears to have been taken from a Health Education England document. 

This guidance is aimed at helping staff to be respectful towards trans colleagues, not patients.

A Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust spokesperson said: "There is no trust policy that says staff should not ask a patient's name and our staff always address patients by their preferred name."